Emma Chamberlain Explains Why She’s Not Taking Lead Roles After Her Acting Debut
Emma Chamberlain just made her feature film debut — but don’t expect to see her carrying a movie anytime soon.
The YouTube star turned Gen Z style icon opened up about her first acting experience in Forbidden Fruits and revealed the very specific kind of roles she’s chasing next. Spoiler: they involve Wes Anderson, creepy Tim Burton vibes and a character who is decidedly not the hero.
Emma Chamberlain Deliberately Avoided the Spotlight
Chamberlain, who plays a character named Pickle in Forbidden Fruits, said she intentionally sought out a supporting part rather than jumping straight into a starring vehicle.
“I didn’t want to go into anything and be the lead,” she said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on March 12, adding she felt that would be “too much pressure.”
She described her debut role as the “perfect-sized” part — a deliberate, low-stakes entry point into a new craft rather than a splashy Hollywood pivot.
The film, which premiered on March 27, stars Lili Reinhart, Lola Tung, Alexandra Shipp and Victoria Pedretti alongside Chamberlain. In the movie, Reinhart plays Apple, a retail worker who secretly leads a cult with coworkers Cherry and Fig.
“But when new-hire Pumpkin (Tung) challenges their performative sisterhood, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate,” according to the film synopsis.
Emma Chamberlain’s Dream Directors Might Surprise You
When it came to talking about what’s next, Chamberlain didn’t name-drop big-budget franchises or romantic comedies. Instead, she went straight for auteur filmmakers and offbeat aesthetics.
“For me, anything in a Wes Anderson film, anything in a Tim Burton, a creepy Tim Burton movie,” she told People Magazine.
She cited films including Coraline, Napoleon Dynamite, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Moonrise Kingdom as favorites — a lineup that skews quirky, animated and deeply specific.
And the types of characters she wants to play? Even more unexpected.
“Being some sort of nerdy character or being a b****, being a full-on mean girl vibe, that would be so fun to me,” she told the outlet. “But I also love haunted vibes, so a Tim Burton-y thing could be awesome, too.”
Chamberlain said she is interested in roles in “weird, indie” or darker-themed projects — a lane that feels distinctly different from the bright, confessional energy that made her a household name on YouTube in the late 2010s.
How Emma Chamberlain Shocked Even Herself
Perhaps the most telling detail from Chamberlain’s press tour is just how much the experience caught her off guard. This wasn’t a celebrity checking a box. By her own account, something clicked.
“Playing a character is something I really enjoyed more than I expected,” she said. “No one, including me, really anticipated enjoying it to the extent that I did.”
That candor tracks with the unfiltered, relatable persona that first drew millions to her vlog-style content and later made her a fixture at events like the Met Gala, where her red carpet interviews have gone viral year after year.
Chamberlain described her experience acting in a feature film as positive — and based on the roles she’s eyeing, it sounds like “Forbidden Fruits” was just the beginning.
Whether she ends up in a stop-motion Wes Anderson world or haunting the screen in a Tim Burton thriller, one thing is clear: Emma Chamberlain isn’t interested in playing it safe. She just wants to make sure the part is the right size first.
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
